Amos 5:21 "I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.

◄ Amos 5:21 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
"I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.

English Standard Version
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

New American Standard Bible
"I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.

King James Bible
I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
I hate, I despise your feasts! I can't stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.

International Standard Version
"I hate—I despise—your festival days, and your solemn convocations stink.

American Standard Version
I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour of your assemblies.

Darby Bible Translation
I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will not smell a sweet odour in your solemn assemblies.

Young's Literal Translation
I have hated -- I have loathed your festivals, And I am not refreshed by your restraints.

Cross References

Leviticus 26:31
And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the smell of your sweet odors.

Isaiah 1:11
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? said the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

Isaiah 66:3
He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrifices a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offers an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burns incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.

Jeremiah 14:12
When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

Ezekiel 23:18
So she discovered her prostitutions, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.

Hosea 2:11
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

Hosea 5:6
They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them.

Amos 4:4
Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:

Amos 4:5
And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this likes you, O you children of Israel, said the Lord GOD.

Amos 6:8
The Lord GOD has sworn by himself, said the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.

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Assemblies Delight Despise Disgusting Feast Feasts Festivals Hate Hated Holy Loathed Meetings Odour Refreshed Reject Religious Restraints Smell Solemn Stand Sweet

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

5:18-27 Woe unto those that desire the day of the Lord's judgments, that wish for times of war and confusion; as some who long for changes, hoping to rise upon the ruins of their country! but this should be so great a desolation, that nobody could gain by it. The day of the Lord will be a dark, dismal, gloomy day to all impenitent sinners. When God makes a day dark, all the world cannot make it light. Those who are not reformed by the judgments of God, will be pursued by them; if they escape one, another stands ready to seize them. A pretence of piety is double iniquity, and so it will be found. The people of Israel copied the crimes of their forefathers. The law of worshipping the Lord our God, is, Him only we must serve. Professors thrive so little, because they have little or no communion with God in their duties. They were led captive by Satan into idolatry, therefore God caused them to go into captivity among idolaters.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

21. I hate, I despise—The two verbs joined without a conjunction express God's strong abhorrence.

your feast days—yours; not Mine; I do not acknowledge them: unlike those in Judah, yours are of human, not divine institution.

I will not smell—that is, I will take no delight in the sacrifices offered (Ge 8:21; Le 26:31).

in your solemn assemblies—literally, "days of restraint." Isa 1:10-15 is parallel. Isaiah is fuller; Amos, more condensed. Amos condemns Israel not only on the ground of their thinking to satisfy God by sacrifices without obedience (the charge brought by Isaiah against the Jews), but also because even their external ritual was a mere corruption, and unsanctioned by God.